Hi,
We do not touch to the database content during updates, except for re-creation.
The countries and states are recreated if there was delete. Otherwise, it does not touch the content.
It allows you to restore the countries and states if you made a manipulation error. Just removing all states/countries and HikaShop will restore them with the default configuration.
But if you just publish/unpublish them, HikaShop will not alter it.
Regards,
Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.
Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.